The Sniper Elite V2 Community Forum has a post from Rebellion senior management on multiplayer support in the original Sniper Elite, saying this was was switched off by Glu, the third-party now responsible for the shooter's GameSpy multiplayer support. As noted on Slashdot, Glu acquired the GameSpy multiplayer technology from IGN in August of this year (apologies for missing this then -- interestingly, this is not even yet reflected in the Wikipedia), saying at the time: "There will be no disruption in service to GameSpy's current customers and contracts as a result of this acquisition by Glu." Rebellion says that after seven years they will no longer be able to provide multiplayer support, as they are locked in by the current economics of having used the GameSpy middleware:

"A few weeks ago, the online multiplayer servers for Sniper Elite were suddenly switched off by Glu, the third-party service we had been paying to maintain them.

For the past seven years we have run these servers at a cost to ourselves so that fans of Sniper Elite could continue to play online for free.

This decision by Glu was not taken in consultation with us and was beyond our control.

We have been talking to them since to try and get the servers turned back on. We have been informed that in order to do so would cost us tens of thousands of pounds a year - far in excess of how much we were paying previously. We also do not have the option to take the multiplayer to a different provider. Because the game relies on Glu and Gamespy’s middleware, the entire multiplayer aspect of the game would have to be redeveloped by us, again, at the cost of many tens of thousands of pounds.

While we are not happy about the situation, as an independent developer we simply do not have the resources to pay the massive costs of new servers along with redeveloping a seven-year-old game.

We share the disappointment of fans who have played the game since it was published in 2005. This is not something we intended or wanted to happen, but unfortunately it has been beyond our control. We have always looked to support our fan community and we hope the past seven years of free multiplayer service have been evidence of that - we're sorry that the servers have been shut down in this way.

We would like to thank all the fans who have continued to support Rebellion and Sniper Elite."

While we are not happy about the situation, as an independent developer we simply do not have the resources to pay the massive costs of new servers along with redeveloping a seven-year-old game.

I'm sure your fan-community would be quite willing to help you out with this problem if you, say, open up the source code to them. Doesn't even have to be for the full game; just enough that they can re-work the networking code. They'll build it and you can offer it as a free patch on your website. Practically free and great advertising for you (e.g., "see how we value our customers?")

This was my first thought. Although the devs might not have the rights to do that if the publishers footed the bill.

Seriously? You got "rude" and "thick-headed" out of that? Jesus, that's sad.

"awful,boring,stupid"

Wow. Yes.

You have my sympathies. Life must be very difficult for you indeed if you get so offended by a harmless opinion. And yes, the multiplayer is awful, boring and stupid - sorry. Go cry in your beer (or grape juice) if you must.

I can put you two in touch with a good marriage counselor if you think it will help.

While we are not happy about the situation, as an independent developer we simply do not have the resources to pay the massive costs of new servers along with redeveloping a seven-year-old game.

I'm sure your fan-community would be quite willing to help you out with this problem if you, say, open up the source code to them. Doesn't even have to be for the full game; just enough that they can re-work the networking code. They'll build it and you can offer it as a free patch on your website. Practically free and great advertising for you (e.g., "see how we value our customers?")

Thats why those suckers need to learn to code lan/dedicated servers again for people because obviously they cannot afford to have a service running for people and their games. This adds me another red flag if I ever consider buying their games, and yes I did buy sniper elite v2... but with this news now I will think twice.

netnerd85 wrote on Dec 8, 2012, 15:05:Opinion? No, you are just being rude. You have NO idea what you are talking about. Try it. Then, maybe if you don't like it then hey, say "I don't like it, not for me". No need to be a complete cock is there? No. There is not.

Ahh, delicious irony. Nothing like someone being a cock about someone else being a cock. Rather than kick a man for not bowing low enough you need to first learn to bow yourself. Your indignation and self-righteousness is way out of line. And for the record, most people find campfests to be boring.

"During times of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

netnerd85 wrote on Dec 8, 2012, 15:32:Saying something like "glad that dude died, heard he was fat and ugly - so who cares". That dude could have been a really nice old War Vet that can't play newer games because his reflexes aren't what they used to be.

Dev wrote on Dec 8, 2012, 14:41:Protip: Use steam and things like this can be avoided. I think GFWL was in existence even back then, so even that piece of crap could have been used and probably gotten a kickback from MS.

Until 5 years ago, Gamespy was where Steam is today when it comes to multiplayer server backend services. Gamespy's master server had extremely high availability, scaled well into the hundreds of thousands of simultaneous clients, and their SDK was simple and easy to integrate into most games. When games like Sniper Elite were made, this was by far the best choice for a 3rd party server browser backend.

Furthermore at the time the idea of Gamespy changing hands was right up there with Gabe selling Valve. It just wasn't on the radar - there was no reason for Gamespy's owners to ever do it as the server backend service always turned a reasonable profit.

Of course in 2012 Gamespy isn't used nearly as much as it was back then. The core technology is sound, but it's archaic; it was designed in the era of Quake, optimized for arena shooter style dedicated servers, complete with heartbeats and people browsing lists of servers to find what they're looking for. It never properly evolved to handle P2P matchmaking (a something foisted on to PC users by console ports), and the lack of ancillary services (chat, etc) only widen the gap. Steamworks has effectively supplanted Gamespy in this day and age due to the combination of services Steam can offer and the vastly superior P2P matchmaking. Or to put that another way, with game companies doing so few native PC games and so many PC ports, these days they wanted a service that closely emulated Live/PSN to ease the porting, and that's something Gamespy couldn't do as well as Steam.

At this point Glu is straight up trying to extort game developers. Before the sale the going rate on something like Sniper Elite would be in the 4 digits; with the common Gamespy API and relatively few users, the load was minimal and Gamespy didn't need to do anything special to support the game. By charging tens of thousands of pounds Glu is trying to maximize their profits and milk everyone dry by charging rates many times the cost of providing the service. If they want tens of thousands of pounds for Snipe Elite, I can only imagine what they're charging EA for the earlier Battlefield games, which are far more active.

In any case, this is a shameful end to the Gamespy service. While it hasn't been relevant for new games for some time, it deserved better than to go out like this, with a vulture gaming company shaking down developers for every last cent they can get.

Dev wrote on Dec 8, 2012, 14:43:I RTFA and got this:

There will be no disruption in service to GameSpy's current customers and contracts as a result of this acquisition by Glu.

If rebellion has a contract about the service they could probably sue to get it back on, especially since they can show they said publicly it wouldn't change.

The deals developers made with Gamespy depended on the developer, but from what I understand they'd sign a multi-year contract to cover the first couple of years of the game (when it would be the busiest) before reverting to a year-to-year basis. As usage for any given game dwindled, Gamespy kept their rates low, which meant even for a small number of users it was practically pocket change to keep paying Gamespy to continue supporting the game. Most likely Rebellion's 2012 contract has expired, and they are unwilling to pay Glu's rates for the next year. So there would be nothing to sue over; the contract ended and then Glu jacked up the rates immensely.

Saying something like "glad that dude died, heard he was fat and ugly - so who cares". That dude could have been a really nice old War Vet that can't play newer games because his reflexes aren't what they used to be.

Um... whatever.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Prez wrote on Dec 8, 2012, 15:23:Hey, we're good until you tell me how I am supposed to express my opinion. My opinion is one of the precious few things that is actually mine.

Feel free to express yourself however you want, don't expect people to agree or not to challenge. Saying something like "glad that dude died, heard he was fat and ugly - so who cares". That dude could have been a really nice old War Vet that can't play newer games because his reflexes aren't what they used to be.

Opinion? No, you are just being rude. You have NO idea what you are talking about. Try it. Then, maybe if you don't like it then hey, say "I don't like it, not for me". No need to be a complete cock is there? No. There is not.

Seriously? You got "rude" and "thick-headed" out of that? Jesus, that's sad.

"awful,boring,stupid"

Wow. Yes.

You have my sympathies. Life must be very difficult for you indeed if you get so offended by a harmless opinion. And yes, the multiplayer is awful, boring and stupid - sorry. Go cry in your beer (or grape juice) if you must.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi